Stalybridge St. Paul’s 2nds snatch victory from the jaws of er.. victory…

On a day where a number of matches in the league had already been called off due to waterlogged grounds, after another week of torrential down-pours, it was a pleasant surprise that our game was played in glorious sunshine, with captain Brian Stone winning the toss and electing to put 10 man Hazel Grove into bat.

The bowling attack of Jacob Dooley (5-21) and Alan Dale (3-17) started excellently, with Jacob taking 3 wickets in the first 25 minutes of the game, the 3rd of which coming in the 6th over was a cause for confusion, with the batsman Mark Baker (apparently a Yorkshire man, though we’ll not hold that against him), being caught behind, *thinking* from the shouts, and that it had hit his pad, that he’d been given LBW, immediately starts walking off, looks back, to see the umpire hasn’t put his finger up yet, so comes back, whereupon the umpire presumably decides “oh you walked, you must have nicked it”, sticks his finger up, only for Baker to see it was a caught decision, and leaves the field mumbling in dissent, to be replaced by Hazel Grove’s captain Jake Bennett.

Jake’s arrival saw Hazel Grove’s recovery, forming a partnership with the already at crease Andy Tomlinson, that would last an hour and twenty minutes, putting on 48 runs between them before Jacob picked up his 4th wicket in the 28th over, after returning to the bowling attack, bowling Bennett for 19, putting the visitors on 58.

Andy lasted another 9 overs, after being at the crease for 2 hours, before getting caught by Alex Wilde with the tips of his fingers, leaving Tomlinson stunned at his wicket, off a Pete Coxon (1-16) delivery, Coxon returning to the 2nds after a long break following a heart attack; welcome back Pete!

With only Martin Hodson (15) contributing to the remaining runs (his son’s Oliver‘s 1 not-withstanding), Hazel Grove were finally bowled all-out with an over spare for 93, during which time young Jacob took his 5fer with the last ball of his 12 overs ending his figures 12 overs, 6 maidens, 21 runs and 5 wickets; excellent bowling lad, thoroughly deserved man of the match in my opinion.

After the interval opener Alex Wilde was left fuming just 20 minutes into the innings, as he left the field at what he deemed an unfair advantage in Hazel Grove’s bowling one of their 1st team bowlers Lewis Rodgers (3-19) returning after 6 weeks out injured after splitting a finger in a T20 match.

Rogers picked up his 2nd & 3rd wickets moments later, sending Tony Mooney (🦆) for an early bath after six deliveries, with the lightest of touches taking the bails off the wicket, and Michael Hatton (5) facing just one more ball than Mooney, and the home side teetering on 3-26.

However stalwart opener Stuart Nock at the other end had other ideas, staying at the crease for just short of 2 hours, and 2 runs short of his half-century, and agonisingly 7 runs short of victory, before being Hazel Grove’s 8th and thankfully, final wicket.

Captain Brian Stone (2) and Peter Coxon (5) managed to bring the what at times looked perilously closed to defeat, a sigh of relief to the watching faithful, to see the home side edge over the line to finish 94/8.

Well done lads, still some woeful catching in the field, and some dodgy batting, but a win’s a win. 🙂

Next week see the 2nds first visit to Pott Shrigley Cricket Club, 40 minutes up the road on the far Western edge of the Peak District National Park.

By the way, if you’ve never used the mapping app What3Words, give it a try (Apple Store / Google Play Store), it’s a great way to give a simple 3 metre accurate location with just three words, and is something the emergency services have been plugging people to use, to help accurately locate addresses and remote accidents, hence this unsolicited advertisement. For example, the entrance to Pott Shrigley’s ground is ///varieties.marketing.chambers, which can easily be sent to your phone’s route planner of choice, to friends if you’re lost, or to the Uber app to book a cab at 4am when you wake up in Huddersfield.

After last weeks complete washout across all divisions, with the 2’s staring down the dam that is at the centre of the news up in Whaley Bridge, playing changing-room cricket while waiting for it to be called off, it was a rare and welcome change to see the sun again on a Saturday afternoon.

After Brian lost the toss to his counterpart Richard Millward, Buxworth took the decision to bat, which Brian had said he planned to had he won beforehand.

Buxworth were never able to breach 3 runs per over, and after a long spell of being on two wickets down, opener Neil McCormack‘s valiant efforts lasting 150 minutes at the crease finally came to an end just shy of his half century on 48, caught at point by Steve Monks off Adil Zaman (4-19).

Neil’s removal started Buxworth’s collapse, with Steve Monks (4-12) taking 3 wickets in his second, and the innings final over, to see the visitors finish their 45 overs on 124-9.

After the interval, Stalybridge lost their only 2 wickets of Krunal Bhatt and Tony Mooney in the 5th and 10th over respectively, leaving opener Stu Nock (78*) and #4 Steve Monks (30*) to put on impressive 92 partnership in just 13 overs (for a total of 22.4), with Nock carrying the bat and finishing the match in style smacking a six into the old-people’s home next door’s car park to finish on 130-2.

On a day that 12 hours previous looked in doubt, with the monsoon like levels of rain that Stalybridge endured, it was a testament to the sterling work of groundsmen Stuart Barnes and Keith Bowers† that have prepared the pitch into excellent condition to allow the match to go ahead with no indication of the amount of water the outfield must have received.

After winning the toss, Stalybridge captain Brian Stone put the visitors Dinting into bat, and other than expensive two overs in the middle spell, the home side bowling attack made light work of the youngster heavy Dinting batters for very little runs, with only the captain and opener Pete Brightmore putting any runs of note on the board, before being bowled for 29 by Ahmed Hayat for the first of his two wickets, in the 32nd over when the visitors were on 58.

Adil Zaman managed to take 4 wickets for 19 runs, before a combined effort from Tilak Bhojani and bowler Ned Woodman managed to run-out the final wicket to see Dinting end their innings on 73.

After the interval, the batting from the openers Alex Wilde (24*) and Stuart Nock (19) along with 11 extras at that point, before Stuart was caught at Gully by Wing Yan, saw the home side needing the same 37 runs, they’d made to that point to win the match, which between Alex and Tony Mooney (20*) who came in to replace Stu did comfortably, to end the match with Stalybridge getting maximum points on 76/1.

It was an early start with Stalybridge 2s on the road to league leaders Hadfield St. Andrew’s, and I was running late; when I arrived with 15 minutes to start, returning captain Brian Stone had already won the toss and put Hadfield into bat, on a bloody hot day, and scoring on my own, I scrabbled to get ready in what could only be described as a green house, it was frikkin’ boiling in that score-hut. 🙂

Hadfield opened with Johnny Gabriel and captain Rick Ball, with the former falling towards then end of the 5th over, bowled by Alan Dale with the home side on 16.

Rick’s partnership with Ian Morton coming in at #3 ended thirty minutes later in the 14th, when Ahmed Hayat got the first of his 2 wickets to bowl Ian for 10, bringing in keeper John Nicholson who at the home fixture in week 3 hit 105* in their 158 run victory, so it was with great relief when Ahmed got his second, just under 20 minutes later bowling John for just 16, and 5 balls later in the 19th over Mark Connolly (3-33) got an equally important wicket in their skipper on 24 caught at forward square-leg by Adil Zaman, the home side now 63-4 with twenty six overs to go.

The visitors had to wait another 13 overs and 27 runs before Jacob Dooley (3-23) took the first of his 3 wickets to bowl #6 Alex Smith for 18.

Chris Trantor coming in to replace Smith did an good job seeing out the last 14 overs, while his remaining partners came and went before finishing 22 not out, with the hosts all out for 134, with just two balls left in the innings.

First ball after tea, and disaster struck with opener Keith Bowers claiming his 3rd of the season when Hadfield’s captain Rick Ball (3-20) took the first of his 3 wickets, and took his second 3 overs later to dismiss fellow opener Jordan Elliott for 1.

Mike Hatton coming in at #3 did a job trying to stem the tide, but was frustrated by his partners falling around him before he himself was deemed LBW and was sent back to the dressing room on 22, and the visitors five wickets down and only 29 runs to show for it after 14 overs, with a humiliating defeat looking highly likely.

His final partner however Adil Zaman (who hadn’t meant to play after taking a nasty blow to his big toe in the last match), coming in at six, began the start of a phenomenal innings lasting 2 hours 19 minutes initially with Mike, then captain Brian Stone who too was given LBW on 8.

Brian’s dismissal with 25 overs left to play, brought in Stalybridge’s other hero of the day in Alan Dale who over the next hour and half, between the pair of them put on an incredible display of picking and choosing the right balls to play and what to soak up.

Adil happily absorbed the pressure at one end, while Alan picked up the runs at the other, despite being dropped twice, and was unlucky to miss out on his first half-century, but still notched up a career best of 45 not out, while Adil must have been knackered after spending all that time in the heat to earn his 24 runs off 109 deliveries to see Stalybridge pick up a very welcome but unexpected victory to win 136-6.

Well done to the both of you.

Alan Dale and Adil Zaman following their 97 run partnership to win at Hadfield.

On probably the warmest cricketing day of the season so-far, being put into bat after losing the toss was in theory a good choice, the batting track however had other ideas…

With 2nd XI Captain Brian Stone still recovering from his operation, though thankfully up and about, with him up watching the T20 match mid-week, it was down to Steve Monks again to command the troops, a task I’m sure he wasn’t particularly enjoying with the loss of 4 wickets for just 30 runs, with Elliott (2), Hatton (1), Nock (19) and Monksie (2) himself the casualties before the end of the 14th over.

By the middle of the 33rd over, the remaining six wickets had been dismissed for just 28 more, bringing the home side’s innings to an end 58 all-out, the standout performance came from the visitors Captain John Theyer who took 4 wickets for just 14 runs.

To say teas were a sombre affair for Monks’ men, would be an understatement, it probably didn’t help that the club had been struggling with electrical issues all day, and no-one could have a brew until 5 minutes before they were due to go back out.

Youngster Jacob Dooley took the first scalp, by bowling John Theyer in the sixth over, with Mark Connolly picking up the first of his wickets in the seventh, when Theyer’s replacement Tristan George was caught by Jacob, who also took the next wicket with an excellent direct-hit run-out from point, with just leg-stick to aim at, to dismiss a decidedly unimpressed Lucas Hurrell; tremendous throw lad.

The Stalybridge bowlers were having a great day, keeping the run rate down, Ahmed Hayat at one stage being 2 for none, when 2nd opening Stuart Barton was dismissed LWB on 10 runs in the 12th over, the visitors were now 5 wickets down on 35 runs, and started twitching, and started raising the hopes of a dramatic turn-around for the home-side, despite Chapel needing just 24 more runs.

Unfortunately Stalybridge, despite managing to take another three wickets, couldn’t push their bowling any better to gain the win, and a four from Lee Storer in at #9 was enough to see Chapel over the line to take claim victory.

I think most expected to be back in the changing rooms half an hour after tea, having had the score knocked off for little to no wickets by the team second in the league, but the same dead track that had plagued the home side did a similar job for the visitors, making what seem likely to be a one-sided affair into a more enjoyably close match.

Last week, I was too lazy to do a report, but the match at Offerton finished in a rain affected draw, with Stalybridge 143-9 after 45 overs and Offerton finishing 71-7 in a reduced 33 over 2nd innings.

Next week sees the 2’s at league leaders Hadfield St. Andrew’s Sports Club Cricket Club, who are still on target of fulfilling my opening match prediction of them winning Division 5.

The weather once again played a pivotal role in the cricket this past weekend, and for once it worked in our favour.

Before I begin, I want to wish our 2nd XI captain, Brian Stone a speedy recovery from his extensive surgery last week, get well soon Boss!

With Brian out of action, Steve Monks was at the helm again, and upon winning the toss it was deemed the best decision to put the home-side into bat, on a wet uncovered track following extensive rain fall, not an unreasonable idea.

I arrived about and hour before the game was due to be played, and within minutes it was teeming it down, and continued for the next 50 minutes, though you wouldn’t believe it from this picture, taken just after starting.

With a break in the inclement weather, the game managed to start on-time, with father and son partnership in Ravi and Josh Patel opening the batting, as has been the case for as many games I’ve seen played against Compstall.

Obviously, having a stable one and two at the crease week in, week out has a positive effect on the pair, as they were quickly running between the sticks on every possible opportunity, with a near perfect symmetry, they reached their 100 partnership in a little over 90 minutes, with Ravi on 43 and Josh on 44, at which point the father decided it was time to crack on, and by the time they had reached 150, less than 30 minutes later, Ravi was now on 79 to Josh’s 57.

Young Jacob Dooley, was first to strike for the visitors, earning keeper Keith Bowers his first catch in the role to dismiss Josh on 75, and the home side a now respectable 172-1 with just 8 overs to go; his father was next to fall five overs later, after notching up another 50+ partnership with Josh’s replacement on an impressive 132 off a-run-a-ball 131, caught scrambling up the hill immediately in front of the score-box by Matthew Harrop off Ahmed Hayat‘s delivery, to see Compstall 226-2.

Matthew got Stalybridge’s final wicket of Compstall’s innings in the final over to see Vinny Clark bowled for 7 runs, leaving keeper Chris Sullivan at the other end not-out on 22 from just 11 balls and Compstall completing their innings 256-3 wickets.

In all that, there had been a 20 minute break in play, due to rain, and during the interval the rain began again in earnest, with everyone, glued to their mobile phones sharing various weather app reports of how long this spell was going to last etc.

Once play re-commenced it was in the 6th innings that Stalybridge received their only wicket loss with the score just 8 when Stuart Nock was cleanly bowled by Vinny Clark for just 6 runs. Keith Bowers at the other end and Krunal Bhatt replacing Nock only had enough time to put another 23 runs on the board before the rains returned with a vengeance, this time not to be denied, bringing an expected two hours delay with it, the captains and the umpires agreed that further wait was pointless, and the game abandoned, giving Stalybridge an additional 7 points and denying Compstall 8 points that neither team really deserved.

Assuming the weather changes, which it isn’t looking likely with a current 60% chance of rain predicted, Stalybridge will be on the road for the 3rd week in succession for some reason, in midges Hell, more commonly known as Offerton.

p.s. Sorry for these getting later and later, it’s hard juggling the time to do with the league stats, and even harder when there’s little positively to give me incentive.

I’ll state for the record now, poor officiating either by the inability to hear edges caught behind, the inability to count to 6 regularly or inability to see when a ball is hitting a leg plumb smack-bang in the middle of someone’s middle stick is not what lost us the game today, it certainly didn’t help, but it was the simple fact that for the 2nd week running we haven’t had more than three batsmen reach double figures, and only one in those two matches exceed 30 runs, and it matters not who you’re playing, if they haven’t won a match in 30 years, if you’re not putting runs on the board, then you’re going to have a bad time.

With Stalybridge’s captain Brian Stone losing the toss, Charlesworth had their first opportunity this season to put their opposition into bat, and with the match underway, it wasn’t until the 8th over that Stalybridge notched up their first run of the day, it doesn’t get more exciting than that!

With Alex Wilde putting his usual dogged shift in, there was unfortunately no-one at the other end willing to put runs on the board, and after 90 minutes, Alex was bowled for just 15 runs by a work colleague of mine, David Sargeant, who’s probably going to make my life hell after the Champions League result, as he’s also a Liverpool supporter.

With only two others in the Stalybridge batting line-up reaching double figures, Krunal Bhatt (17) and Old Iron-Knees Mooney (27) it was little wonder that the visitors crawled over the line completing their overs with a total of just 88-8.

Not to take anything away from the C&C bowlers, they performed admirably, with opener Steve Marren completing 11 overs with figures of 3-11.

After tea, despite having a low target to aim for, the bowling attack helped in a small part, to make up for the lack in batting, by restricting Charlesworth’s batters to similarly lowish figures, but a number of key wickets were not given when on two occasions audible edges weren’t given when caught behind, as the umpire in question is deaf as a post, and as I left the field, one of our bowlers was obviously incensed when he told me that one of the comments he got from the umpire was “if you had appealed properly, I’d have given him out”!!! What was he supposed to do, wave semaphore flags?

But hey ho, everyone has bad decisions go their way, so I reiterate the point that had we batted decently, it wouldn’t have been an issue.

On the upside, my dog was completely knackered when we got home, after spending the full day in the open air, so there’s that I guess.

You may, if you’re actively reading these missives of mine, note that I neglected to post one for last week’s fixture against Hollingworth, this was a conscious decision made due to a number of players being down following a poor game, and I didn’t want to add my impending negativity to their suffering, however a week has since passed, and it is my solemn duty to present the following to Keith Bowers in recognition for back to back ‘goldens’. Sorry bud.

With Brian on one of his 37 annual holidays, it was down to Vice Captain Stephen Monks to manage the team’s visit to Hazel Grove, and upon winning the toss and putting his side into bat, opening with the same pair as has started previously this season Alex Wilde and Jordan Elliott.

With Alex given LBW in the 11th over, with 18 on the board, runs (and deliveries for that matter) were a slow in coming, Stu Nock back with the 2s for the first time this season, put 13 on the board while Jordan at the other end ticked along at the other end, adding 8 himself before Stu was caught by Martin Hodson off a Steve Pigeon slow ball.

Once stand-in captain Monks came in at number 5, it was time for Stalybridge to start the attack in earnest, with both he and Jordan at the other end running at every opportunity that presented itself, and they put an exceptional 82 partnership before Monks was caught for 39 with a blinding catch from 13 year old Oliver Hodson, to see the visitors on 121-4. Jordan was bowled by ex-High Lane player Stuart Roscoe, unfortunately one run shy of his half-century, just 7 runs later; unlucky son.

With the majority of the bowling attack worn down, Tilak Bhojani was able to capitalise on a number of easier deliveries to help boost the Stalybridge score-card, and should have been out when on 13, after being dropped, and on 34 after being dropped and 58, after being dropped, ultimately finishing 63 not-out Go buy a lottery ticket lad!

Tilak was able to see out the 45 overs but Stalybridge ended up 8 wickets down with the final wickets being the last two balls of the innings, with Hazel Grove captain Jake Bennett (4-42) setting himself up for a hat-trick ball for his next match, by first getting a stumping of Ahmed Hayat (11) then with the final ball, earning Keith Bowers the first…of the season. Sorry Keith, has to be done. 🙂 The visitors finished 211-8.

After tea, we saw some of great bowling from Ahmed Hayat and Saad Jelani who both managed to bag 3 wickets apiece for just 30 and 29 runs respectively, between them bowling each of the first five wickets for just 50 runs, with only Steve Pigeon in that number putting up any resistance with 14 runs, with Mark Connolly (2-12 off 6) picking up two caught wickets from Stuart Nock and Jordan Elliott, and captain Jake Bennett in at #8 being the only other Grove player to reach double figures with a side-topping 27, it was left to Adil Zaman with equally impressive figures of 2-16 off 8.4 overs to see him off and the home side all out for 95.

Next week sees Brian back from golfing, if he can get back in the team after today’s excellent all-round performance, when the visitors to Gorse Hall Road will be Hollingworth 2s.

And not a mention of Manchester City’s massive 6-0 win over Watford in the FA Cup Final in sight. 🙂

Hope you all enjoyed the event. Planned to perfection by @MadeInMCRFest. The main aim was to bring the community together to have a great time whilst raising vital funds for @ReubensRetreat and our club along the way